Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul on Sunday blasted former CIA Director John Brennan for suggesting that President Trump will be remembered as a “disgraced demagogue,” saying that Brennan spying on Americans while running the agency was disgraceful. “This man had the power to search every American’s records without a warrant,” Paul tweeted Sunday. “What’s disgraceful is attacking the Bill of Rights and the freedom of every American.”

he busiest guy in Washington, DC, right now is Mike Pompeo. Shuttling from the halls of Congress to CIA headquarters in Langley and, soon enough, back across the Potomac to Foggy Bottom, the former congressman from Kansas and current secretary of state-designate is rapidly becoming the Henry Kissinger of the Trump administration — the man for all jobs, in all seasons. Pompeo’s long-bruited selection to replace Rex Tillerson is an inspired choice. He’s a rising star with an impeccable résumé (graduated first in his class at West Point, degree from Harvard Law, military vet), a no-nonsense manner and a capacity...

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said he thinks President Trump’s picks to lead the State Department and CIA will make it through the Senate, despite Sen. Rand Paul’s pledge to try and block the nominees. Mr. Graham said CIA Director Mike Pompeo will make a suitable replacement for Rex Tillerson as secretary of state, since he shares Mr. Trump’s world view — including a tough line against North Korea. “He will get confirmed,” Mr. Graham told CNN’s State of the Union. Mr. Paul, a libertarian-minded Republican from Kentucky, said he fears. Mr. Pompeo is a throwback to Republicans who...

Samantha Power delivers ominous message to Trump: 'Not a good idea to piss off John Brennan' Samantha Power, who was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under former President Barack Obama, warned President Trump on Saturday that it was "not a good idea to piss off John Brennan" after the former CIA director told him in a tweet that America would "triumph over you." MOTE AT LINK:

<p>The former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, in a venomous tweet Saturday, accused President Trump of political corruption and warned, "America will triumph over you."</p>
<p>John Brennan's biting two-sentence statement came in response to a Friday evening tweet in which the president celebrated the ouster of FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe. "When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history," he wrote. "You may scapegoat Andy McCabe, but will not destroy America... America will triumph over you."</p>

ProPublica has issued a correction for mistakenly saying in an article that Gina Haspel, President Trump’s nominee to head the CIA, was involved with the treatment a terror suspect and falsely stated she mocked the suspect. Although Haspel, who has been with the CIA since 1985, was in charge of a covert CIA prison in Thailand where detainees were subject to waterboarding and other interrogation methods in 2002, the ProPublica story falsely stated she was directly involved with the torture of a prisoner by the name of Abu Zubaydah. Zubaydah was waterboarded at the CIA prison on 83 occasions. “It...

Rand Paul launched a typically obnoxious attack on Gina Haspel today. Here is one account: “To really appoint the head cheerleader for waterboarding to be head of the CIA? How can you trust somebody who did that to be in charge of the CIA,” Paul wondered, adding, “To read of her glee during the waterboarding is just absolutely appalling.” Paul was referring to an account of a waterboarding session with suspected al Qaeda lieutenant Abu Zubaydah, who was subjected to so-called enhanced interrogation techniques now widely considered to be torture. ., . The problem is that this conduct appears to...

Following a recent trip to Ukraine, Rep. Mike Pompeo of Kansas told Newsmax that while the final outcome of the ongoing crisis is "impossible to predict," Russian President Vladimir Putin's long-term mission "is to control Ukraine." "It could easily go on from there to Belarus or Moldova," he added, referring to two other independent states in the former Soviet Union that have large Russian-speaking populations. Two-termer Pompeo, a Republican member of the House Intelligence Committee, is part of the growing number of younger Republicans in the House urging the administration to take a harder line against Russia on the economic...

President Donald Trump's pick to replace Mike Pompeo as director of the Central Intelligence Agency has a controversial past at the CIA that will likely resurface during her confirmation hearing in the Senate.Trump announced Tuesday that he has chosen Deputy Director of the CIA Gina Haspel to be the next director of the agency. If confirmed by the Senate, she will become the first woman to lead the CIA.When Trump first selected Haspel to the position of deputy director of the CIA, the move was met with opposition by some lawmakers because of her involvement in the CIA's "extraordinary rendition...

It is this reporter's opinion that often behind a great man is the driving force of a great woman. Never was this truer than in the case of Kateryna Chumachenko Yushchenko, the American-raised wife of the newly elected leader of the Ukraine. This tough-minded, savvy businesswoman hails from Chicago; the daughter of an electrician and a seamstress, Kateryna grew up steeped in the traditions of her ancestral homeland. She graduated from Georgetown University and became known for her commitment to freewheeling capitalism. But Ukrainian democracy was the zeal of her life. During WWII, Kateryna's parents were forced to emigrate to...

For the first time, the Defense Department will begin moving classified data and applications to Amazon Web Services’ Secret Region—the same cloud environment developed for the CIA and intelligence community several years ago. The Defense Department’s sole-source decision—a contract awarded without a full and open competition—was protested by Microsoft, which itself offers a variety of cloud services to the federal government.

Don't listen to those (like this CNN editorial masquerading as reporting) complaining that she was too tough on terrorists. Gina Haspel is a great choice to replace Mike Pompeo as CIA director. First off, she knows the nuts and bolts of human intelligence from the inside out. As a career CIA officer in the agency’s operations (or spying) arm, Haspel spent the early part of her career recruiting agents in the field to give their secrets to the U.S. But after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Haspel played a supervisory role at a CIA black site in Thailand and...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Tuesday condemned President Trump's decision to nominate Gina Haspel to become the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), saying she was involved in "one of darkest chapters in American history." While he expressed confidence in current CIA Director Mike Pompeo's ability to serve as secretary of State, an appointment Trump announced earlier Tuesday, McCain said in a statement that Haspel needs to explain her stance on torture. "The torture of detainees in U.S. custody during the last decade was one of the darkest chapters in American history," McCain said. "Ms. Haspel needs to explain...

Trump tweeted, "Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all!"

The purge at the State Department isn’t stopping with Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson. Stephen Goldstein, the undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, was fired after putting out a statement apparently contradicting the White House’s version of why Mr. Tillerson was fired. Mr. Trump said the parting of the ways was in the works for some time, but a statement issued by Mr. Goldstein Tuesday morning said Mr. Tillerson “did not speak to the president and is unaware of the reason” for his dismissal.

President Trump has ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and replaced him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, orchestrating a major change to his national security team amid delicate negotiations with North Korea, White House officials said Tuesday. Trump last Friday asked Tillerson to step aside, and the embattled top diplomat cut short his trip to Africa on Monday to return to Washington.

Anderson Cooper has taped an interview with Stephanie Clifford, the adult film actress known as Stormy Daniels who alleged a sexual relationship with Donald Trump and is now suing the president. The interview will air on the CBS newsmagazine "60 Minutes," where Cooper is a regular contributor. But the exact air date is unknown. A source involved in the taping said it will air "on a future episode." A "60 Minutes" spokesman declined to comment. Cooper interviewed Clifford's lawyer Michael Avenatti on CNN on Wednesday night.

Joseph Farah It must be nice to be Jeff Bezos.How do you become one of the richest men in the world by founding a company that only recently gave a thought to profitability?Amazon has been around a long time. It’s one of the few Internet companies that was doing business 20 years ago, when I launched WorldNetDaily.com, now known as WND.com.But it was less than three years ago that Amazon began to achieve any profits to speak of. And, even today, you’d be shocked to know how high its revenues are and how relatively low its profits are. snip...

About 50 years near Vietnam, a helicopter that wasn’t officially there fended off an attack on a post that didn't officially exist, with the help of a single Kalash. It may have been the unofficial report of the shot down of an airplane with an AK-47…from a helicopter by the CIA. "An Air Combat First" painting by Keith Woodcock in the CIA's collecton remembers the occasion that an Air America helicopter fought off at attack on a remote radar site just over the North Vietnamese border with Laos. (Photo: CIA) The story is during the Vietnam War, Lima Site 85...